This invention relates to methods and garments for protecting hunters, highway construction workers, and others engaged in outdoor activities who are subjected to hazards due to their poor visibility in poorly lighted conditions.
Participants in hunting and outdoor activities are often subjected to increased risk due to their limited visibility under poor viewing conditions at dusk, during the night, or at dawn, or when visibility is poor due to inclement weather.
Safety vests and other wearable apparel or devices which include of fluorescent color panels and light reflective strips have proven to be somewhat effective, but have disadvantages. They require a separate and independent light source for illumination, and this secondary light source is often inadequate or completely unavailable.
Notably, in hunting activities most of the danger to the hunter exists when the hunter is walking through the woods in pre-dawn light when the bright fluorescent orange garments frequently worn by hunters are nearly useless.
Outdoor sporting activities such as running, walking, and bicycling, when performed in the evening or other poor light times are precarious for the participant when they utilize roadways for this activity. There exists the inherent danger to the participant from automobiles whose drivers cannot see them until the headlights of the automobile shine upon the participant. Current reflective garments are not sufficiently adequate because of the limited focal distance of the automobile light source.
Other work activities preformed outdoors such as road repair and construction crews and police details can be made safer to the participants because the bright flashing LED""s can be more readily seen than just reflective vests or garments. Often the practice of road constriction sites utilizing large flashing yellow lights causes glare to the oncoming motorists whose visibly is temporarily diminished therefore limiting their ability for see the reflective garments worn by road crews or police.
Automobile breakdowns along highways are particularly dangerous when they occur under poorly lighted conditions. Flares and other accident warning lights are often unavailable to protect individuals changing a tire or attempting other repairs, and even if used don""t clearly identify the presence of people who may move onto or near the roadway.
Bicyclists and joggers are frequently compelled to use roadways and are particularly in peril at night or under other conditions of poor visibility. For the reasons noted above, reflective clothing is frequently inadequate, as is the limited active lighting provided on the bicycle itself.
There is accordingly a significant need for improved methods and safety articles which can protect persons engaged in hazardous activities under poorly lighted conditions.
It is a general object of the invention to protect persons who are performing activities made more hazardous by poor lighting.
It is a related object of the invention to provide increase the safety of persons performing such activity by providing means for clearly indicating their presence and location.
It is a further related object of the invention to provide a safety vest which carries thereon a plurality of battery operated electric lamps visible from all directions which may be worn on the body to clearly signal the presence of the wearer to others.
It is a further object of the invention to protect hunters, workmen, motorists and others engaged in outdoor activities against injury which is more likely to occur if such persons cannot be easily seen due to darkness, inclement weather or other environmental conditions.
In a principle aspect, the present invention takes the form of a method for enhancing the safety of an individual engaged in a hazardous activity comprising the steps of providing a wearable over-garment, such a vest, which is fitted with a plurality of independent electric lamp light sources positioned on the exterior of the garment, and wearing the garment during the performance of the hazardous activity with the lamps illuminated such that the presence of the wearer is clearly indicated from all directions.
The principles of the invention may be applied to particular advantage to protect hunters, or other persons who must be present where hunting is taking place, from being shot when mistaken for prey in poorly lighted conditions. In accordance with the invention, each such hunter or other person is provided with a lighted safety vest of the type contemplated by the invention which is then worn, with the vest lights illuminated, when the person is in the hazardous, poorly lighted area.
The principles of the invention may similarly be used to advantage to protect highway workmen, stranded motorists, and others who are on or near roadways at night, during bad weather, or under other conditions in which the visibility of the person to motorists is poor.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a new lighted hunting and outdoor activity safety vest which is of a durable and reliable construction, and which has a low materials and labor cost of manufacture.
The lighted safety hunting and outdoor activity garment contemplated by the invention preferably takes the form of a vest constructed of either or mesh, a solid lightweight material, or a combination of both materials. The vest is preferably fastened in the front by a zipper, buttons, snaps, Velcro(copyright) straps, or other suitable fasteners. The lighted safety hunting and outdoor activity vest exposes a plurality of electric lamps distributed on the front, side and back of the vest and is provided with a power source in the form of a battery and a switch. The lights are permanently attached to and integrated into the structure of the vest.
The lights may advantageously take the form of light emitting diodes (LED) characterized by their small size, brightness, wide viewing angle and low battery consumption. At least four and up to eight individual lamps are preferably located on the front of the vest and a like number are located on the back of the vest. In addition, lights on both front and back of the vest are positioned so they can easily be seen from either side of the wearer. The lights may be white, include colored lenses, or may naturally emit monochromatic light of selected colors. The colors of the lights and/or lenses are preferably white, red, green, yellow or any combination of all of these colors. Red lights are preferrably be used for safety vests intended for hunting since deer and other prey animals are unable to easily see light in the red portion of the spectrum, just as they cannot see the fluorescent red and orange hunting garments which are used to identify hunters in the daytime.
Safety vests intended for use in a roadside environment by construction workers, police, motorists, etc. preferably incorporate automatic intermittently operating switch means which flash some or all of the lamps of the vest to improve their visibility and distinguish the lighted vest from construction and warning lights which may be placed near a roadway hazard.
Vests for use in both hunting and roadside environments also preferably incorporate visible reflective strips or panels, allowing the presence of the wearer to be clearly indicated in daylight conditions or when artificially illuminated. The reflective strips may advantageously positioned adjacent to the electric lamps so that the light from the lamps is additionally reflected off of the reflective material to enhance the visibility of the vest.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the invention may be more clearly understood by considering the following detailed description of specific embodiments of the invention. In the course of this description, frequent reference will be made to the attached drawings.